Kursk nuclear power plant

Kursk nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in Russia with 3 operating units totalling 3,255 MW gross. The site has 9 units on record in total.

Operating2circle area ∝ site capacity Coastlines, borders and lakes: Natural Earth (1:10 million, public domain), which is generalised, so a coastal plant can sit a couple of kilometres off its true shoreline. Site positions: Global Nuclear Power Tracker.

Units on record

Operating

Operating capacity

3,255MW

Country

Russia

Units

Unit	Status	Type	Model	Gross MW	Online
Unit 1-3	Operating	LWGR	RBMK-1000	1,000	1984
Unit 1-4	Operating	LWGR	RBMK-1000	1,000	1986
Unit 2-1	Operating	PWR	VVER V-510	1,255	2026
Unit 2-2	Under construction	PWR	VVER V-510	1,255	-
Unit 2-3	Under construction	PWR	VVER-TOI	1,255	2034
Unit 1-1	Retired	LWGR	RBMK-1000	1,000	1977
Unit 1-2	Retired	LWGR	RBMK-1000	1,000	1979
Unit 1-5	Cancelled	LWGR	RBMK-1000	1,100	-
Unit 2-4	Pre-construction	PWR	VVER-TOI	1,255	2034

Unit by unit

Each unit's rating, type and milestone dates as recorded by the Global Nuclear Power Tracker, with any correction we made to it. A dash or "not disclosed" means the source does not give the value.

Kursk nuclear power plant 1-3 Operating

Reactor type	Light water graphite reactor (LWGR)
Model	RBMK-1000
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,000MW
Net capacity	925MW
Thermal output	3,200MWt
Enrichment	2–2.6% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	1 Apr 1978
First criticality	9 Aug 1983
Grid connection	17 Oct 1983
Commercial operation	30 Mar 1984

Kursk nuclear power plant 1-4 Operating

Reactor type	Light water graphite reactor (LWGR)
Model	RBMK-1000
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,000MW
Net capacity	925MW
Thermal output	3,200MWt
Enrichment	2–2.6% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	1 May 1981
First criticality	31 Oct 1985
Grid connection	2 Dec 1985
Commercial operation	5 Feb 1986

Kursk nuclear power plant 2-1 Operating

Reactor type	Pressurised water reactor (PWR)
Model	VVER V-510
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,255MW
Net capacity	1,200MW
Thermal output	3,300MWt
Enrichment	3–5% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	28 Apr 2018
First criticality	22 May 2025
Grid connection	31 Dec 2025
Commercial operation	1 May 2026

Kursk nuclear power plant 2-2 Under construction

Reactor type	Pressurised water reactor (PWR)
Model	VVER V-510
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,255MW
Net capacity	1,200MW
Thermal output	3,300MWt
Enrichment	3–5% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	1 May 2019

Kursk nuclear power plant 2-3 Under construction

Reactor type	Pressurised water reactor (PWR)
Model	VVER-TOI
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,255MW
Net capacity	1,200MW
Thermal output	3,300MWt
Enrichment	3–5% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	20 Dec 2025
Commercial operation	1 Jan 2034

Kursk nuclear power plant 1-1 Retired

Reactor type	Light water graphite reactor (LWGR)
Model	RBMK-1000
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,000MW
Net capacity	925MW
Thermal output	3,200MWt
Enrichment	2–2.6% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	1 Jun 1972
First criticality	25 Oct 1976
Grid connection	19 Dec 1976
Commercial operation	12 Oct 1977
Permanent shutdown	19 Dec 2021

Kursk nuclear power plant 1-2 Retired

Reactor type	Light water graphite reactor (LWGR)
Model	RBMK-1000
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,000MW
Net capacity	925MW
Thermal output	3,200MWt
Enrichment	2–2.6% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	1 Jan 1973
First criticality	16 Dec 1978
Grid connection	28 Jan 1979
Commercial operation	17 Aug 1979
Permanent shutdown	31 Jan 2024

Kursk nuclear power plant 1-5 Cancelled

Reactor type	Light water graphite reactor (LWGR)
Model	RBMK-1000
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,100MW
Net capacity	not disclosed
Thermal output	not disclosed
Enrichment	2–2.6% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Cancelled	2012
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Construction start	1 Dec 1985

Kursk nuclear power plant 2-4 Pre-construction

Reactor type	Pressurised water reactor (PWR)
Model	VVER-TOI
Size class	Large
Gross capacity	1,255MW
Net capacity	not disclosed
Thermal output	not disclosed
Enrichment	3–5% U-235
NSSS vendor	Rosatom
Owner	Rosatom100%
Operator	Rosenergoatom

Commercial operation	1 Jan 2034

Kursk nuclear power plant in context

By gross operating capacity Kursk nuclear power plant is the 6th largest of 10 operating nuclear sites in Russia, holding 11% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 37th of 172 worldwide.

Its operating units started up between 1984 and 2026; the median unit is 40.0 years old, older than the median of 37.5 in Russia.

The 5 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 4.6 to 7.7 years (median 5.5) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 1980s is 7.3 years.

The nearest other tracked nuclear sites are Novovoronezh nuclear power plant (254 km).

Build time by unit

Unit	Construction start	Grid connection	Years	Fleet median, same decade
Unit 1-1	1972	1976	4.6	5.4 (1970s)
Unit 1-2	1973	1979	6.1	5.4 (1970s)
Unit 1-3	1978	1983	5.5	7.3 (1980s)
Unit 1-4	1981	1985	4.6	7.3 (1980s)
Unit 2-1	2018	2025	7.7	7.7 (2020s)

Nearest tracked nuclear sites

Site	Country	Distance	Operating GW gross
Novovoronezh nuclear power plant	Russia	254 km	3.8

How these are worked out: ranks use gross operating capacity; ages count from the start-up year on record, as on the age page; build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the build-times page; ratings are the tracker's net and design net capacity, as on the uprates page. Distances are straight-line between exact positions, so a site with only an approximate position gets none. A unit missing a date or a rating is left out of the figure that needs it.

Earthquakes nearby

Loading the latest USGS check…

Magnitude 4.0 and above within 200 km of Kursk nuclear power plant's listed coordinates, past 30 days. This is distance, not shaking: it says nothing about damage or any change in operation. Every plant.

Site detail

Location	Kursk, Russia
Coordinates	51.6764, 35.6064
Elevation	about 170 mabove sea level
Setting	About 530 km from the sea
Region	Eastern Europe
Units by status	Operating: 3 Under construction: 2 Retired: 2 Cancelled: 1 Pre-construction: 1

Elevation is read at the listed coordinates from a 30 m terrain model (SRTM 30 m). Two independent models differ by a median of 6 m across our plants and by up to about 40 m on steep or coastal ground, and a point on a shoreline can read as sea level. Distance to the water is measured to a generalised 1:10 million coastline, so a few kilometres or less is not resolved. This is context, not a design-basis or flood-risk figure.

Owners & operators

Owners	Rosatom
Operators	Rosenergoatom

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Sources

Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06
GEM.wiki entry (further reading) , CC BY-SA 4.0, linked, not quoted

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data